Advent 4 – December 23rd,
2012 – Luke 1
In the Name of Christ Jesus,
our Advent King +
For the 4th Sunday in Advent, the Sunday
immediately preceding Christmas, a pastor as two options in the lectionary for
what Gospel lesson he can read. He can
read Luke and the account of Mary and the Magnificat, or he can read from John
chapter 1, John pointing forward the Messiah – which is the one we’ve done more
often these past few years. It’s an
interesting choice. You have Mary, whom
all women will call blessed, and you have John, who is by Jesus’ own words one
of the greatest of men – and yet, in both readings there is a wonderful point
of connection – both Mary and John don’t focus on themselves and how wonderful
they are, they both point forward to Jesus and what He does. We know John – he points to the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world – we sing this whenever we celebrate
communion. But, as we have fallen out of
the practice of having Matins, we don’t sing Mary’s song – the Magnificat – all
the much here – so that will be our focus, our final preparation for
Christmas. We will look at Mary, and
then let her point us to her Son. Let’s
dive in.
In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to
a town in Judah, and she
entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
And when Elizabeth
heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. Well, I guess John shows up in this text too,
but he’s not talking, he’s just leaping for joy when Mary brings Jesus by. And it’s not just John who gets excited, even
Elizabeth joins
in. And Elizabeth
was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed
are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! For behold, when the sound of your greeting
came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there
would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” What the angel told Zechariah was all coming
true – Elizabeth
was pregnant despite her age, and indeed, it looks like her son will be
preparing the way for the Messiah who has just showed up. And there’s Mary – standing there. Probably around 13 years old. Easily she could have been overwhelmed,
easily she could have let this all go to her head. Easily she could have bragged about herself –
because let’s face it, if for some stupid reason ever we are sitting down and
bragging about who we are and what’ve done for the Lord, being able to say,
“Yeah, I gave birth to Him” would be a fantastic trump statement. So what does Mary do? She stops talking about herself, and instead
she points to God.
Mary
says, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
We don’t often use the word “magnify” this way, but it means to make
great, to make a big deal of, to focus upon.
Your magnifying glass lets you focus upon something and see it clearly –
and praise does this – it focuses us upon God and what He has done. This serves as a reminder of what all
Christian praise must do if it is to be called praise – it has to focus upon
God – it has to be about what God does.
It has to rejoice in God and in His salvation. Christian praise is always tied, always
points to the fact that God Himself acts on our behalf and saves us. This is what we praise God for – and Mary
will continue to expand aspects of this in her song.
“for He has looked on the humble estate of His servant. For behold, from now on all generations will
call me blessed, for He who is mighty has done great things for me.” Mary recognizes something about herself that
we in America
can forget. She sees that she is but
that she deserves to be humble – that she is lowly, that there is nothing in
her that demands success or praise or glory.
It’s not about her. And yet, God
has beheld her, God has seen her, and God is the One who has elevated her – in
fact, all generations, even our to day, learn of the Blessed Virgin Mary – her
words will echo throughout churches, children will want to be her in Christmas
programs – and why? Not because she
herself is wonderful, but because God, the Mighty One, has done great things
for her. If she were not the mother of
our Lord, not a one of us would have even heard of her. Mary is acutely aware of God’s blessings
given to her, precisely because she knows that she does not deserve them. She is humble.
Sometimes it can be hard for us as Americans to remember
that we too are humble people, and that any good, any blessing we have comes
simply from God’s blessing and favor upon us.
That’s not the way we think as Americans. We don’t tell our children that they are
humble and lowly – we say, “Someday you could be president.” We don’t say that God will use them and the
talents He has given to them as He sees fit; we tell them that they can grow up
into whatever they want to be. And
sometimes we can forget that our talents, our blessings are all things that
come from God, that the opportunities that we see, these are gifts from
God. Our talents don’t say much about us
– they rather proclaim how good God is.
Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and
glorify, not you, but glorify your Father in heaven. This is what Mary understands, she
understands because she sees she praises God for the great things that He has
done for her. And likewise, consider the
wonderful gifts that God has given to you – your talents, your abilities, your
opportunities. These are things He has
given to you freely and wondrously, and for this we ought give praise to God.
“and Holy is His Name. And His
mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation.” But it gets even better. God’s Name, the God who does all this for
you, His Name is holy, and He is full of mercy.
Mary sees that – and her name will ever be associated with God’s
Name. She will forever be remembered as
Mary, the Mother of God. And she sees
the great mercy that she has received, that she, a sinful being, receives such
wonderful things from God.
Now, dear friends, consider the fact that you are
Baptized. You have been joined into
God’s own Name, His own holiness has been applied to you. You are made to be part of God’s Family as
assuredly as Mary, Jesus’ own mother is part of His family – for you have been
Baptized, you have been adopted as sons and daughters of the Father, you now
have Christ for your brother, you are His family – and as such, you receive His
Mercy. The greatest and mightiest thing
that God has done for you has nothing to do with the presents under the tree,
or the size of your home or your bank account, or how talented you are – those
are wonderful, but they aren’t the greatest.
You have been forgiven on account of Christ – you have been given the
gift of faith and welcomed into the family of God. God in His great mercy and love for you has
called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, and this is something that
is for eternity – and it’s not dependent upon you, but flows totally from
Him. God is rightly praised for this.
“He has shown strength with His arm; He has
scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; He has brought down the
mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.” Mary brings out another thing that God does
that we know yet often forget. We do not
need to look very hard to see the mighty and powerful abuse and harm others,
indeed, even harm us. But Mary’s words
remind us of a truth that we can forget when we see the wickedness and
oppression in this world – there is so much more that God prevents, there is so
much that God brings to an end. The
proud are scattered, their plans fall apart and so often do not come to
fruition. The tyrants on their thrones
fall, the powers crumble – evil doesn’t endure because God brings an end to
it. And this is a comfort to us, it gives
us a new perspective – for even when evil is done to us, even when we are
getting it heaped upon us – we know that God does not let it last, that it will
crumble and fail sooner or later, and that He will deliver us.
Indeed, the great example of that is the very fact that
Mary is pregnant with the Christ Child as she says this. No more will God be content to have fallen
king after fallen king come and rule on this earth – no more will He let this
world’s prince have His sway – no, God Himself comes to be our king, to be our
Lord, to defeat Satan – and because He has come we have victory assured. The brief battles we face now in this life
will give way and yield to the eternal victory celebration of heaven, because
God’s strong arm wins the victory by being nailed to the cross and rising again
on the third day.
“He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich He has sent empty away. He
has helped His servant Israel,
in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His
offspring forever.” The coming
of Christ changes things; things will be different because of Christ. Wickedness will be overcome, the powerful
will be cast down. The failings and the
disappointments that we face in this life eventually will go away. And instead, God fills us with all joy and
blessedness. And as those of the New
Testament, we see these words of Mary and the promises they point all gathered
in to the Lord’s Supper. If you believe
that you are spiritually rich, that you need no forgiveness, that you have no need
for God’s mercy – you will remain as empty and shallow as you were. But for you, dear friends, you who see and
know your own sin, who know your own struggles, who feel the pressures of life
in this world and who are burdened – you who are hungry for righteousness –
behold what God does for you. He calls
you to His own table, and here He fills you with not merely good things, but
the very best thing – He fills you with Himself – Christ Jesus gives Himself
unto you, in a way most wondrous and amazing – He forgives your sins in His
Supper, He gives you His own strength – He helps you face down the fears of the
past and helps you to face the trials of the future, because in His Supper we
see the proof that He is with us, indeed, in His Supper He is with us.
Dear friends, Christ Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, is here,
and because He is Here, because He has called us unto His family through the
waters of Baptism, because He gives Himself to us in His Supper, we see and
understand His great love for us – we see and understand all that He has done and
accomplished for us. For indeed, while
we were humble and lowly, while we were weak – He is the one who is strong for
us, strong to save – who comes to rescue us and free us, not merely for the
brief span of our lives, but for all ages and ages, even unto life
everlasting. This, dear friends, is why
we magnify the Lord, this is why we focus our eyes upon Him and in thanksgiving
sing His praise – because we see all that He has done for us, freely and
without worth or merit in us. Christ
Jesus came to be our Savior, and He shall come again to bring us unto heaven,
and so we say again, Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +
No comments:
Post a Comment